


After the Light

by orphan_account



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Agent 3 is a huge nerd, Agent 3 is named Rider, Agent 4 is a country bumpkin, Agent 4 is named Abbi, Agent 8 dresses like an E-Boy it’s great, Agent 8 goes by Eight, Angst probably, F/F, Female Agent 4 (Splatoon), M/M, Male Agent 3 (Splatoon), Male Agent 8 (Splatoon), PTSD, Slow burn a little bit, The hypnoshades are back babeyyyy, This whole thing has way more plot than its worth, pulp or no pulp, the scrapped octoling hairstyles are so rad I love them
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 15,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24015133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Eight has been settling in pretty well to his new life in inkopolis, but the universe isn’t done with his psyche yet. There’s consequences to almost being blended into mush, after all.
Relationships: Agent 3/Agent 8 (Splatoon), Agent 4 (Splatoon)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 29





	1. Round 2

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaa!! My first fic... excuse me if there’s a lot of OCS. I wanted my agents to be happy and have friends and family outside of the splatoon— in any case I hope you enjoy!! That’s the goal of my writing.

Eight had been alone in his apartment for around 3 weeks without his roommate, and there were still another 4 to go before Agent 3 of The Squidbeak Splatoon, also known as Rider, would be back. After the events in the metro, Eight hadn’t wanted to live alone, nor did he have a place to stay. Rider volunteered, and they’d been making it work. Sometimes Rider would go out to do work for the splatoon, but never for as long as he was now. Idly, Eight tuned into Off the Hook. In all honesty, for the past few weeks seeing Pearl and Marina had been his favorite activity, whether it be on a screen or in real life. 

Through the screen, familiar voices rang out. 

in all honesty, Eight was hoping that they’d just go through the news and the latest stages as usual, with nothing special to announce. Unfortunately, just as he tuned in, the duo came with bad news.

“Uh..why is our producer freaking out? Read the teleprompter, Marina!” Pearl.

“Huh? Let’s see here…” Marina.

“THIS JUST IN! The Great Zapfish has...disappeared?!” Again, Marina.

Eight felt like he was going to faint. He’d only been in Inkopolis for 2 years, and already something big was happening— he didn’t like the feeling of it. 

Unfortunately, Inkopolis doesn't wait for Eight to breathe again.

“Wait, for reals?! I feel like i’ve heard this story somewhere before…” Pearl’s voice shook him back to reality. 

“There's more! Pop superstar Callie of the Squid Sisters has gone missing!” 

What? He’d just seen both the Squid Sisters just a month ago— Not for very long, but he’d been out with Rider for the day, and he just happened to have lunch with them. Things happen quickly in Inkopolis, and Eight couldn’t say he liked it.

It seemed that Pearl shared the same sort of shock. “NOOOO! NOT CALLIE! This is terrible! Do something, Marina!”

Marina tucked one of her hairs behind her ear again. “Uh... OK, I'll put together a search part—”

“Whatever. I'm sure they'll turn up at some point. In other news...” Pearl didn’t let Marina finish her sentence, moving right along.

Marina wasn’t so sure about this, though. “But shouldn't we form a search party or someth—”

Pearl cut her off, continuing with the news into a segment she called Inkopolis Fashion Focus, but at this point, Eight wasn’t paying attention. He was talking to Jane, an inkling who he met while she was on a trip to the city a few months back. She was in Inkopolis to view several of the schools in the city. she was studying to become a scientist, specifically studying lifeforms, biology, he thought it was called. 

Jane didn’t immediately judge him for being an octoling, but rather harbored curiosity about him and the differences from inkling to octoling. In the end, they ended up exchanging numbers and they texted quite often now. Jane was somewhat decent with technology, so despite living in the middle of nowhere with her girlfriend, she still had steady wifi. 

Today was supposed to be the day Jane’s Girlfriend came to Inkopolis first to settle in, and then Jane would follow at the start of the school year. There was no doubt that her girlfriend knew what was happening. But eight needed some sort of reassurance, especially right now…

CleancoreSurvivor: hey did you hear what happened in Inkopolis today—?

ScientistButGay: Yeah Abbi txted me lightning speed abt it. U ok?? U seem p nervous. 

CleancoreSurvivor: i am nervous— this happened once before but the difference was I was with the octarian military during it. The experience..was nothing short of horrific.

ScientistButGay: u know what i might just head in2 the city early so I can help u. There’s a train scheduled for the week after next week Wednesday what do u think yay or nay 

CleancoreSurvivor: idk i dont wanna trouble you.. 

ScientistButGay: is fine I’m sure abbi will b glad 2 see me 2 

CleancoreSurvivor: sure then hushejendnekakqleidn

ScientistButGay: its np stop it with that keysmashin’ aight? See u in three weeks 

CleancoreSurvivor: alright see u later- Im gonna go play a few turf war matches with Azalea 

ScientistButGay: Alright u do that <333

Eight sighed, staring up at the ceiling. He was about to have a tough few three weeks.


	2. Pulp or No Pulp?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Great Zapfish is back, and with it comes Callie of the Squid Sisters and the agent behind their return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was one of my favorite chapters to write! Even though it was like, 2 am when I did—

Not even 2 weeks later after the announcement that both The Great Zapfish AND Callie had disappeared, they reappeared. 

Relieved, Eight met up with the duo, and subsequently met the inkling who had helped this be achieved: Agent 4 of the Squidbeak Splatoon. And also, as a day job, Jane’s girlfriend, Abbi. 

Abbi has short hair and red ink. Her eyes are turquoise, and her personality is nothing short of chaotic. Excitable, Loud, wields a roller the size of Calamari County. 

Eight was honestly scared to talk to her. most of their “conversations” just consisted of awkward staring. 

Until Jane arrived and bridged the gap, effectively making them a trio. 

“C’mon, you guys are never gonna be friends if you don't talk to one another!” she’d said. “It’d be disappointing if my best friend and girlfriend didn’t get along..”

no one wanted to disappoint Jane. 

And that’s how they ended up at he and Rider’s kitchen island, talking about splatfest.

Eight, lost in his thoughts about the past few weeks, didn’t hear Abbi’s question. 

“Eight, hello Eight? Inkopolis to eight!” Abbi’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. 

“What?”

“I asked you what you were teaming with for this splatfest. Pulp or no pulp for orange juice?” 

“Uh...no pulp?” Eight replied. 

“Disgusting. Where’s your taste?! Pulp is great!” Abbi sounded extremely pressed.

“Chunky....”

Abbi stuck her tongue out. “You and all my friends…” 

...Pulp ended up winning. 

“YEAHHH!! Let’s go!!” Abbi had exclaimed when the news was announced. Eight was disappointed, but he knew with this, it wouldn’t be much longer till Rider was back.

Eight couldn’t help but smile.


	3. Splattershot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Agent 3 finally makes his appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahahaha its finally time. Enjoy! Also I know that the splattershots weren’t new around the time this takes place, but it’s a nice touch ok? Ok

The next time Eight saw Rider was in Inkopolis Square. The purple inkling had just come out of Ammo Knights with a new weapon in tow. Eight recognized the shape. Universally, that kind of gun is used with both inklings and octolings: a splattershot. Although for octolings, an octoshot was the equivalent. Not many inklings actually used it on the regular, but Rider seemed to love it. He used all different kinds, and when Eight had asked why in the lobby while they were waiting for people to join, Rider’s reply was “spite.” 

Eight respected that. Adjusting his goggles, he decided to surprise Rider by approaching from behind. Squeezing his way through the crowd, he found his way to the inkling, who was somewhat hard to find, though not that hard, because of the seafoam tinted scar around one of his eyes that gave him away.

Sneaking behind him, the clear-eyed octoling inhaled and said “Boo!”, but it was inaudible over the inkling turning around last minute and speaking, “oh, hey Eight! Sorry for not coming straight home, I saw the new model and got excited..” 

“Oh! That’s no problem! I got a new pair of dualies yesterday, so you’re not alone in the weapons department. Plus you were gone for a while this time, you deserve it!” Eight insisted, putting his hands up and waving them dismissively. 

“Thanks! things didn’t get too crazy while I was gone, yeah?” 

“Well…” eight started rubbing the nape of his neck, it was always a nervous habit of his, even when the scar on his back and neck burned.

Rider chuckled and put his hand up to his mouth to hide it. The inkling always seemed pretty embarrassed about laughing, smiling, or any positive emotion in general. “Nah, I know. Zapfish went missing again, yeah? Must’ve been pretty scary now that you’re here in Inkopolis instead of..you know..”

“Yeah. How about we head home so we can continue this conversation without any unwanted listeners..? It feels kinda uncomfortable to talk about this in public..”

“Oh, right.” 

Eight shuffled in behind the significantly more confident Rider. In all honesty, some of his memories were still murky, but the important ones were all there. Especially the ones just before and after the Inkantation. Which included the ones about Rider that weren’t so positive.

Sometimes Eight wishes he’d never accepted Rider’s invitation to room with him.

Sometimes Eight hated how his mind tended to wander.


	4. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Memories resurge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaa!!! Tysm to my good friend parryparrot for telling me about cleancore so I can make a sanitization joke every time you mention it, and also for proofreading and giving me advice! Also, enjoy. :)

Memories suddenly flooded Eight’s mind, rendering him breathless and panicked on the floor. Holding back tears as he remembered the fight with Rider and Tartar. He had been so afraid. So many bad ends he had imagined. Excruciating detail in each one of his imaginary deaths, painting a brutal picture in Eight’s mind. 

Imaginary ink and mangled body parts strewn within the sanitized color, which looked more like blue oil than a natural ink. 

He remembers gripping his octo shot so tightly his knuckles were white, firing uselessly as the partially-sanitized agent’s hands wrapped ever more tightly around Eight’s neck. He wanted the pain to stop. He wanted to go home. 

That’s when it hit him. He had to beat 3 and reach the surface. That’s the only way to get home. He can’t give up when it’s just out of his reach, a fleeting light he almost gave up on holding onto.

through sheer habit, Eight knew if he kept firing, he’d be out of ink and it would be game over. Forever, this time. Not just until he got enough CQ points to go back and try again.

Eight took one last risk and aimed for the sanitized goo on Agent 3’s eye. 

Everything went blurry after that. 

“Eight? Eight!” Wait..that’s not Marina’s voice..

Eight’s eyes opened suddenly. Over him stood his small selection of friends. Even Azalea was there, for once showing an emotion other than confusion or neutrality. 

Concern was plastered on her face this time. Jane stood by Abbi with a glass of water, which she looked like she had just gotten. Out of everyone, Rider looked the most anxious. By the fact he was laying down, it was obvious that Rider and him had been talking normally one minute, then he had fainted suddenly; It had happened more than once, but mostly when Rider was out.

“Yo, you ok? Rider called all of us up all panicked. He said one minute you were talking normally and the next you were on the floor.” Abbi spoke as Jane handed Eight the glass of water; Eight drank as much as he could before replying. 

“...bad memory.” It was barely a whisper, and he used octarian grammar to speak; this meant nobody but Rider and Azalea could understand him.

“I should probably go. I’m not the best person to be around Eight right now.” Rider said, obviously clicking the information together on his head, and disappeared into his room.

Abbi looked confused. “Memory bad? You can’t remember?”

Azalea sighed, adjusting her lil’ devil horns and moving her hair around. “No, he means bad memory. He used Octarian grammar, though.” 

Abbi looked down. “Oh…”

The rest of the afternoon was spent just trying to get Eight’s mind back into the present and out of the past, by his request. Unfortunately, Abbi’s witty and sometimes comical comments were nowhere to be found that night.


	5. Squiblings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight tries to make it to the train station before noon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I am aware Squiblings is a horrible pun.

The morning of the next day was eerily quiet as Eight watched the sun rise slowly over the horizon. Although, he doubted anyone was up at this hour; other than those who had never gone to bed, of course.

In classic fashion, even though he had a rough day yesterday filled to the brim with memories resurfacing, he still made sure his pilot goggles were still on his head. They were a favorite of his, and no matter how many times Abbi told him they looked stupid was he going to change that.

Also they made his singular tentacle look cool. 

In all honesty, Eight felt  _ exhausted. _ He wanted to sleep, but the looming threat of nightmares dissuaded him from sleeping again. So instead, he opted to scroll through splatnet on the phone he’d gotten. 

Apparently at some point, time had passed, Because the next sound he heard was the click of a door being shut behind someone. 

“You’re up early! It's unusual for you to be up around this time.” The familiar voice spoke, lively as ever. Rider walked into the kitchen after that, opening the fridge to see what they had for breakfast-like food. 

“Well, I used to get up even earlier, but after the metro I started to sleep in a little..” Eight confessed, pouring himself another cup of coffee. 

  
  


“Huh. I mean, fair, after my fight with Octavio I kind of wanted to sleep through the next week, but there was still more work to be done. You can guess where that ended up.” 

“Yeah…”

At that moment, Eight’s phone buzzed, and when he picked it up the notification told him he had a notification from Azalea. 

**Azalea: hey you wanna go to Arowana today? Been wanting to buy some stuff just to wear, not for turf war or anythin’. You in? It’ll be us & Abbi. Jane’s got some sorta school thing to go to. You can ask Rider too, if you want.**

Eight looked back up at his roommate and decided against it. Rider probably had something to do today, anyway. 

**CleancoreSurvivor: yea sure. Rider can’t come but I sure can. When we meeting up?**

Eight had to retype that message five times before all the spelling was right; Note to self: never pull an all-nighter.

**Azalea: uhhhh noon, ig? That’s what Abbi was saying.you have plenty of time to do whatever, its like 6 am anyway.**

**CleancoreSurvivor: alright see you at noon then.**

In all honesty, Eight had 2 more hours till the golden hour in the morning where most places were open, but there weren’t a lot of people on the street. the less, the better. That meant less people giving him weird looks as he minded his own business, probably visiting the dead cafe shop near the entrance to the metro from inkopolis. 

Eight remembers getting all his memories back, finally finishing the last station, and feeling pure ecstasy. Even if the memories were hard to put together and connect, he remembered who he used to be. He remembered Azalea---or 67090-1, as he knew her. He remembered almost everything, except...his own name. And that was a tough pill to swallow.

Maybe he never had a name to begin with? he’d combed over his retrieved memories for anything that could be his name, but as far as he knew, he’d always been Eight, no matter what. And it fit him well enough, so he’d kept it. Maybe one day he’d find a name more fitting, but until then, he was Eight. Just Eight. No elaborate numbers to keep track of where he was supposed to be, who his teammates were, how early he should be given the news one of his friends had died. 

Just Eight. 

\-----

Before Eight knew it, it was 11:30. From where he was, it would take 30 minutes to get to the mall on the train, so he opted to take that. Rushing to the station, he nervously fiddled with the placement of the goggles on his head, and impulsively checking the time every few seconds to check the time. Until a weight hit his chest and his phone almost fell onto the ground. Instead, he decided it was better if he took the fall and went tumbling to the floor. 

“Aaahh! Sorry! I’m so sorry—“ the young, unfamiliar voice spoke, as Eight blinked a few times to focus his eyes. It was a girl who looked around 2 years younger than him, around 14. She was wearing a basic outfit, similar to one he was wearing when he first arrived in Inkopolis. 

The Cream Basics were a dead giveaway she was new to the area. She had two long purple tentacles in front that twirled slightly at the ends, and yellow eyes. She almost looked like Rider, if he was a girl, and 14 years old.

Behind her stood two similarly looking inklings, undoubtedly her siblings. Though their hairstyles were different and she was the only one with yellow eyes, they had the same skin tone and similar remarkable features. 

Eight stood up and dusted himself off. “It’s no problem— i have to get going now— but um. Good luck in Inkopolis! It’s a great city!” He spoke, rushing into the train just as it was about to leave. The three Squiblings waved to him as the train passed by. 

Despite not knowing them well, he hoped their experience in Inkopolis was positive. They were probably here for school, since the school year was beginning to creep closer, and so was the time he was supposed to be at the mall.

He hoped he’d make it in time.


	6. TEMPEST

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight overhears something concerning at Arowana Mall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Plot Time babey

The train arrived at the station closest to Arowana with 5 minutes to spare. Eight dashed as fast as he could, holding onto his phone like it was connected to his life force. He got to the entrance of the mall before his stamina ran out and he stood there, panting. 

“You run a marathon before you came, Eight?” Abbi’s voice said, and Eight looked up at the inkling the voice belonged to. 

“No, but I did run here all the way from the train station.” Eight explained, as if Abbi genuinely thought that. 

“Whatever. Cmon, Azalea’s waiting for us in the food court.” Abbi opened the door and went inside, dragging Eight along with her. 

When they arrived, Eight sat down at the booth that Azalea was sitting at and Abbi went to go get them all lunch. 

Azalea was talking in excruciating detail about what shops she wanted to go to and why, and Eight did  **_try_ ** to pay attention, really he did. But far more of his attention was on a conversation between two inklings next to them. They were muttering in hushed tones, but Eight had always remembered being told he had abnormally good hearing, especially on the metro. Besides, they weren’t being very quiet. 

“Hey, have you heard the rumor about downtown?”

“What do you mean?”

“Apparently there’s an extremely skilled hacker stealing information on a lot of people.. especially on turf war stats.. scary.”

“Why hasn’t the city done anything about it?” 

“People think they’re just rumors.”

There was a beat, then the first inkling spoke again, this time, in a much more hushed tone. 

“...their name is TEMPEST.”

That was when Abbi slammed their food on the table and he couldn’t follow their conversation anymore. 

“Hey, spacecase, food. Azalea apparently has a baton death march planned for shopping today.”

For the rest of the day, Eight’s mind kept wandering back to this TEMPEST person. He made a plan to go and ask Marina later if she knew anything about him. And if she did, they’d probably have to tell Marie or Cuttlefish. 

When all three of them got on the train back, Eight texted Marina to see if she was free in the next few days.

**CleancoreSurvivor: Hey, Marina? Are you free tomorrow or even the day after that? I have a few things to ask you and I’d rather it be in person.**

**DJ_Hyperfresh: yeah sure! I’m free Friday after 8, is that a good time?**

**CleancoreSurvivor: yeah that’s a great time. Thank you! I know you’re busy a lot, so I’m sorry for taking up time.**

**DJ_Hyperfresh: it’s no problem, Eight! You’re my friend, and even though you’ve been here for 2 years there’s still a lot you get confused about. I know from experience. You’re lucky! You have a ton of friends to help you adjust.**

**CleancoreSurvivor: yeah, I’m really grateful to all of them. Thanks again for this!**

**DJ_Hyperfresh: it’s no issue! I gotta go announce the newest stages now, so see you Friday.**

**CleancoreSurvivor: yeah! See you then!**

Eight let out a sigh of relief, knowing that Friday was tomorrow. He’d get the answers he needed about this TEMPEST person. For now, he could head home and have a peaceful evening. Or, well, as peaceful as it gets when playing video games with Rider. 

Unfortunately, what ended up happening was much more eventful than video games. 

When he opened the door to his an Rider’s shared apartment, he saw the three inklings from the train station earlier. The one who’d bumped into him in the first place sat on the couch, excitedly rambling to another girl with naturally yellow ink and blue eyes. Her hair was braided on one side, and she had a ponytail in the back. She wasn’t listening very intently, though, because her eyes were on her phone, and she wore a bored expression. 

The last inkling, a boy with naturally purple ink. One of his eyes was clearly blind, but they were blue. He had one tentacle on the left of his face that reached just a bit longer than his chin, and two that were tied together into a ponytail of sorts. He was playing a game on the TV. 

The purple haired girl looked over towards the door and shot up from her spot on the couch. “Hey!! You’re the weird-looking inkling from the train station!” She exclaimed, loud enough he swears his neighbors heard. 

“Yes, I am...why are you three here?” Eight queried, closing the door before allowing the conversation to continue any further. 

“To see our brother!! DuH!!” She threw the pillow she’d been holding up into the air, just to catch it again. 

“Your...brother? You mean Rider?” 

“Yeah! Rider! Where is he, by the way?”

“Probably getting groceries.” Eight felt bad lying, because he knew where Rider was, but he couldn’t tell them.

“Hey! Why do you know our brother, anyway? You his _boyfriend_ or something?” The inkling grinned. 

“What? No! I’m his roommate. What are your names?”

The purple-haired inkling pointed to the yellow haired one. “That’s Rene! She’s super quiet and straight-faced.  _ Boorrringgg _ , if you ask me. She’s only fun to be around when her curiosity is piqued.” 

Next, she pointed to the half-blind boy playing video games. “That's Azare! He’s blind in one eye from falling out of a tree as a kid! That’s the only time he’s ever been fun!” 

Finally, she pointed towards herself, still grinning. “And then there’s me! Eva, the most fun in our family! Since Rider left it’s been my job to keep everyone entertained. I’m pretty good at it, if I do say so myself.” She dusted her shoulders off for dramatic effect. 

“Ok, uhh. Well, Rider should be back soon, don’t worry! You guys can just chill here till he comes back. Where are you all staying?”

“In the apartment across the hall! Our parents are paying for it so we can go to school here in the city!” Eva explained. So much for Eight’s peaceful nights…

Behind him, a door opened. 

“Woah- you planned a party, Eight? Didn’t expect th— oh no.” It was Rider. Eight moved out of the way so he could come in, and then turned around to look back at him.

“I’m so sorry Eight, I know they’re a handful—“ whatever he was going to say was cancelled out by Eva and her siblings’ ear-splitting yell, “Rider!” Before they all pounced on him for a hug. 

—-

“It’s like herding cats, I swear.” Rider said, sitting down at the kitchen table. 

“What did you need to tell me? You were giving me the ‘important agent info’ look when you came in.” Eight ignored the previous comment. 

“...we’re getting information that a new hotspot of octarian bases are popping up. The manhole is downtown, though...they wanted me to help gather information today. I just scouted out the area, but it seems the main source of power isn’t a zapfish this time.”

“...that’s concerning. What’re we planning to do about it?”

“Cuttlefish says we need more info on it before we actually go in. You got any ideas?”

Eight DID have ideas, but rumors needed to be proven before believed. He wouldn’t mention it now.

“No, not yet. I’ll work on it though.” Eight promised the inkling, before speaking again, “I’m gonna get to bed though, I’m exhausted.”

“It’s 6 pm!”

“And?” 

With that, Eight disappeared into his room for nightmare-infested sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I sure hope Marina was in character enough...


	7. PHOBIA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight meets up with Marina to discuss TEMPEST.

The next morning, Eight had already heard Rider’s voice so much it was a mere buzzing in his ear by the time he was done with breakfast.

“Are you  **_sure_ ** they didn’t annoy you too much?”

“Yes, I’m sure. The closest they got to annoying was asking me if I was your boyfriend,”

Eight could tell that the inkling hoped he didn’t see the ink go straight to his cheeks.

“They..they what?” He shrunk back uncomfortably in his chair. 

“You don’t need to be so nervous about it, Rider. It wasn’t a big deal. Besides, they hopped off the topic right after I said I was just your roommate.”

Rider let out a relieved sigh, “oh good.” Then he looked back up at Eight, making eye contact. “Oh, right. Tomorrow I’m bringing my siblings to play their first turf war match. Can you see if anyone else wants to come? I don’t wanna pit them against strangers.”

“Sure.” Eight spoke without thinking, just accepting the invitation and moving on. He’d foolishly assumed that this would be easy, they’d go easy on them and let their first match be a win. Soon, he’d learn just how wrong he was.

Not today, though. Today, he was going to talk with Marina. He kept that in mind all throughout the day, doing as much research on this TEMPEST person as he could find online, which wasn’t much. 

Before long, it was time to go. They’d agreed on a small cafe outside the square that was quiet enough at this hour that they could talk about whatever.

“Hey!” Marina Ida herself waved Eight over. Some people were still in the cafe at this time, and they looked astonished that someone from Off the Hook was there, in the same cafe as them.

Eight sat across from Marina and gave her a run-through of everything that had happened, and also about TEMPEST.

“So do you know anything about them?”

“TEMPEST, right? Let's see… well, they have a previous affiliation of some sort with Kamabo Co. when I was looking at its files to find anything that might help you get out, I found a file stating that ‘anyone associated/affiliated with TEMPEST or PHOBIA is to be eradicated on sight.’ Does that help?”

“Yeah, a little.. what do you know about this PHOBIA person? Who are they? What are they?”

“Well, according to Kamabo Co.’s files on them..’extremely well-trained elite spy. Formerly known as 567830’...”

“That sounds like an Octarian Military number. Do you recognize it? I don’t. At least I don’t think I do…”

“No, but anyone who ended with 830 was in an elite task force that was assigned to some secret project Octavio was working on. Something went wrong, though, and the project was cancelled.”

“Huh… you mind emailing me the files? Do you have them, even?” 

“The ones on TEMPEST and PHOBIA from Kamabo Co., yes. Any Octarian files are too well protected for me to get my hands on them right now. I’ll email the files I do have, though. Why do you need them?”

“I gotta tell the others. This could be dangerous, if PHOBIA really is an Octarian.”

“Alright. Text you later, then?”

“Yeah. See you!” With that, Eight ran off back to the apartment to tell Rider about TEMPEST. He thought he had enough information for it to be a possibility.

“Hey, Rider!” He called out as soon as he got inside the apartment. Rider was in his room, which he had been all day. That was strange of him. 

With obviously nervous movements, Rider came out of his room. “Yeah?”

“I actually do have something to tell you about the new octarian manhole.”

“Go on..”

——

Downtown inkopolis wasn’t really a scary place, but not a lot of young squids lived there. So really, it was the perfect place for an inkling hacker, known as TEMPEST, to live. 

At this exact time, he was searching for files on all AWOL Octarian Militants. of course, there was Marina Ida, who went AWOL shortly after an event in which “Calamari Inkantation” was played. One other file piqued his interest. File 67090-1 AKA Azalea.

Apparently, she went AWOL after a break in to the facility involving another Octoling who had also gone AWOL after the Calamari Inkantation. How strange…

According to the file, she was the Elite of the Elite. Extensively trained in all weapon classes and was on the Flooder Design Team with Marina Ida.

Her original ink color was blue, so in the image it was a gradient between the pink and the blue. 

How strange..

Perhaps he could gain some extra favors by finding her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope y’all like the image! I drew it myself. 
> 
> https://butterscotch-is-my-brand.tumblr.com/post/617955456916340736/azalea


	8. Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eight reminisces a bit about his past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry for taking so long on this one shjadbhjgjdnslb I’m setting up stuff for the plot and it’s taking a bit. So the next few chapters if there are any before I dive headfirst into the plot will be memories of various characters.

It had been almost a week since the triplets had their first turf war, and it had been quite fun. It’d been the first time Eight had been back on turf since his memories had begun to come back. He knew he shouldn't let himself marinate too much in the past. 

Maybe just a tiny bit wouldn’t hurt.

  
  


\--------

The goggles, in all honesty, looked ridiculous. They were all too metal and clunky, and with them on he couldn't see much better than he could with them off. He wishes they were more stylish, but he needed them on so the troublesome inkling wouldn't recognize him. The rest of his troop told him it was fine if he wanted to keep it off for vision purposes, but every time he did the inkling recognized him and didn't even shoot. He just smiled fondly and switched rapidly between inkling and squid form a few times.

It was almost cute, till the inkling saw other people wearing goggles and splatted them. Most of them died permanently. The entire time, he had a poker face. The inkling didn't care about the others. So why did he care about Eight, a tiny little octarian just barely old enough to hold his octoling form? In all honesty, the inkling looked the same age. 14, maybe 15 if Eight was being generous.

Place after place after place. Up until the second to last manhole before Octavio himself had his boss kettle open. This time, he promised he wouldn’t let the inkling escape. Not this time. He would fight them and put an end to the suffrage of his people.

Eight dashed up behind the inkling as he made his way towards the zapfish. From behind, it was still scary to watch the boy’s rugged efficiency in taking out an elite. There was one more person, but he signaled to them that he was going to take a stab at it and they nodded, ponytail bobbing, and super jumped away. 

He fired one shot of ink before he was on the ground, pinned to it by the inkling.

“You know, usually you guys are more bold with your attacks.” he said, but it didn't sound like a mockery. More like a playful tease one would tell a friend. The octarian was scarily fluent.

“You’re too dangerous to dive into it headfirst.” Eight spoke through gritted teeth, wishing to the heavens that he could find a weak point and splat the inkling for good. 

“Really? Thanks! I've been trying super hard to seem that way. In reality, I'm not very strong compared to other inklings at all.” the inkling grinned, almost as if Eight wasnt about to get splatted.

If this is how strong an average inkling was, Eight didn't want to know about strong inklings.

“I gotta take this zapfish though, and I really don't wanna hurt you of all octarians. So if you don't mind, i'll be going up that geyser there--”

“No. im not letting you take another city’s power away-- not again--” Eight felt like he was being choked, even though the inklings' hands weren’t even around his neck, and words he spoke were drowned out by the sound of a geyser being activated. 

Eight heard the inkling shout something about his name and the letter 3, but everything felt fuzzy and blurry and Eight couldn't focus.

_ Shit _ . the Inkling must’ve taken his chance when Eight had sat there and basically disassociated. He’d get praised for surviving, but was he really when he knew after the power went out the habitat could cave in at any time? The octoling stood up and took off his goggles to wipe the tears bristling at the edges of his eyes. On the ground, he saw a pair of eyewear, almost like the goggles he wore, but much, much more dynamic and suited for what he did. it also increased his vision instead of decreasing it. 

Come to think of it, the inkling had been wearing both a headset and goggles when they fought, right? Even though Eight would never forgive himself for this, he crumpled up the cheap metal octarian supplied goggles and put the ones the inkling dropped on.

Eight knew what he was going to do next.

He was going to watch Octavio stop the inkling in his tracks and destroy him.

And he’d keep these goggles as a trophy of the Octarian’s victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey!!! Notes at the end!! I hope this wasn’t too cringe for you ahah. Rider has the weirdest reasoning for things that Ive ever written but he does have his reasonings besides “he’s pretty”. Also, I set up a tumblr!! Check it out here https://green-town-ghost.tumblr.com Also I hope you all enjoy learning about my literal truckload of trauma I’ve given all of them Ehehehe :)


	9. Pride

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a memory of Abbi's. the story of how she told her parents she was dating the most beautiful and smart inkling in the whole world. a coming out story. whichever one you like to think of it as.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you thought you were getting away without a chaotic lesbian?? haha you thought. this is a conjoined memory for Jane AND Abbi, so there wont be a focused one on Jane unless i decide to write how Eight and Jane met. so take the lesbian cephalopods. take them

Now that fall was rolling around again, Abbi had a lot more work to do around the farm. Gather the few vegetables they had, start preparing for school again which was always annoying because it took almost 2 hours to get there; and on top of that, her 16th birthday was rolling around and she still hadn’t told her parents she was gay. Which would be an issue, because she planned to go live with Jane, her girlfriend who lived closer to the school, AKA actually IN the town the school was located in, as soon as her 16th birthday hit. though, Abbi had to give school some credit. school was where she met abbi for the first time, after all. Jane was incredibly smart, and they’d been paired together in a science class. It was an honors biology course, because biology was one of the only school subjects that Abbi was actually decent at. At first glance, Abbi almost tripped over herself.

Jane had honey orange eyes and honey gold ink to match. Her skin was the most beautiful shade of brown, and on top of that the way she carried herself radiated energy as if she knew she was smart, but wouldn't rub it in your face.

She was perfect, beautiful, and on top of that, the kindest person Abbi had ever met. It was no surprise that Abbi fell head over heels for the inkling.

She really should tell them soon, huh? She didn’t want them to just discover that she was dating a girl while they were snuggling on movie night, or while they were holding hands while shopping, or any number of things. The point was, she better tell her parents that she thinks Jane is pretty, because soon Abbi would be living with her. 

Abbi whipped out her phone and texted Jane for guidance.

**RollerGirl: babe I haven’t told my parents we r dating nor that I like girls what do**

**ScientistButGay: srsly???? Uuuuuhhhh idk I could come over n u could tell them that way?**

**RollerGirl: mmmmmmmmaybe??? Idk cause if they ain’t supportive I don’t want u getting caught up in this.**

**ScientistButGay: if they ain’t supportive you’ll just move in earlier. U cant stop me I’m Omw as we speak**

**RollerGirl: Jane nooooo**

**ScientistButGay: Jane yessssssss**

  
  


An hour later, a knock came to Abbi’s door and she rushed to open it and pull Jane inside and into her bedroom. 

“Seriously? You really came? Jane, I don’t know about this—“

“Honey, don’t worry about it. We’ll be fine. If they aren’t supportive I’ll fight them myself.”

“Jane…..”

“Ok, ok. It's just nice not to be the Worry Wort for once, let me have this.”

“Hhhhhhhhfine let's do this.”

Jane distracted Abbi practically all afternoon with all manners of things, and when the time for dinner finally arrived, Abbi felt much more confident about the whole affair. 

The family all sat down to eat like a normal day, with the added guest of Jane who had said she was coming over for dinner beforehand. 

In the middle of dinner, Abbi set her utensils down and looked up at her parents.

“Hey, mom? Dad? I have something I wanna tell you…” the words almost caught in her throat. She hated it so much. Well, no turning back now.

“Go ahead sweetie, what is it?” 

“I…” she lost her voice and looked over to Jane for assistance. Wordlessly, Jane reached over and grabbed Abbi’s hand, squeezing it in reassurance. 

“I like girls. And I’m dating one. Like right now. And she’s in front of you.” The whole statement came out kind of garbled and spluttery and nervous, as if she was afraid about how they might react. 

  
  


“Oh, so that's why you wanted to move in with her.” her father said, tapping his chin in thought.

“What?”

“Well, a lot of your actions make more sense now. You always seemed a little flustered whenever Jane came over.”

“I--”   
  
“They’re right, Abbi. The only reason I didn't point it out is because I think you’re cute.”

Abbi stuffed her face in her hands.    
  
“Was it really that obvious..?”

“Yes, yes it was. But it's ok! It really doesn't matter to us who you date, as long as you love them and they love you.” her mom chipped in.

  
  


Abbi lifted her head out of her hands and looked at her parents, and smiled a relieved sort of smile.

Because no matter where she went or how many people looked down on her for something so trivial as whom she loved, there would always be people who supported her no matter her orientation.

And that was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to write a chapter that isnt just funsies, that carries actual meaning. I hope I portrayed this right... but in any case i hope you enjoyed! (remember ill probably post when i update the fic on my tumblr so go follow it https://green-town-ghost.tumblr.com/ )


	10. Octo Maze! ~The Missing Inkling Appears!~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Agents start their journey through Octo a Canyon 2.0.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah!! A chapter posted before 1 am the next day? Unheard of. Also, you get a little hint of homosexuality. As a treat.

Oddly, whenever Octarian Activity started to rise, cuttlefish cabin would show up wherever it was shortly thereafter. 

all agents learned this very quickly when they went down the manhole in downtown Inkopolis to the place Callie had been calling Octo Canyon 2.0.

Marie had lended Eight her old hero suit so he wasn’t just wearing the suit from the metro, and Rider and Abbi were just wearing their Hero Suits that they’d been given when they first started out.

“Took you guys long enough. I would have thought you’d be here earlier, Four.” Marie says, immediately diving into explaining what was happening to Abbi. Rider was already talking to Cap’n Cuttlefish who was fulfilling the same job. Eight sort of stood, confused, and fiddling with his goggles that were on top of his hero headset to make sure they were secure.

It felt like forever till the explanations were done, and as nice hearing Rider’s laugh was, Eight wanted to get this over with quickly. Letting this issue fester was dangerous.

When they finally found the first manhole, Abbi and Rider jumped down without a second thought.

Eight hesitated. It had been so long since he had been down one of them, and the horrors that could happen if something went sideways. But he couldn’t back out now. He was the only one who could have any idea what tech was being used and how to use it. So he shut his eyes and jumped down the manhole.

When he opened his eyes again, there was obviously a zapfish at the end. But it didn’t appear as though it was powering anything….regardless, they’d have to rescue it. 

It seemed like a straight path to the zapfish, minus the few stray octotroopers around. However, when they stepped on the first platform, the whole thing spinned around. 

Rider grabbed Eight’s hand, expecting them all to fall to their doom, but the moment never came. Instead, they saw something akin to a maze in front of them, leading all the way to the platform just before the zapfish. 

“Hey, Rider, have you ever seen something like this before?” Abbi said, roller held on her shoulder. She rolled her eyes when she saw Rider gripping Eight’s hand as if they were going to die.

“Nah. Hey, Cap’n? How about you?”

“No! I’ve never seen anything like it, to be honest. The Octarians must be tryin’ something new! Do you know anything, Agent Eight?”

Eight shook his head. “I’ve never seen something like this..”

Rider began to continue forward. “Let’s not waste time, yeah? This’ll be just like learning about Octarian tech all over again.”

Abbi followed without hesitance and Eight eventually hurried along too. The group decided to split up into two groups: Abbi & her roller, and Eight & Rider. Abbi went left, and Eight and Rider went right. Eventually, after taking out many a octotrooper, they met back up in a small square in the middle. 

“Oh hey guys! Please tell me you had octotroopers to fight and didn’t make out the whole time. I’m begging you.” Abbi spoke jokingly, but Eight answered completely nonchalant. Rider, though, did speak a wad of complete gibberish in an attempt to deny it. 

“No. We had octotroopers on the way here too. And Rider kept getting lost.” 

“Alright, if you say so. Let’s continue together.”

At that moment, a group of octosnipers also appeared. Quickly, all agents took them out. Abbi took out one with a vertical swing, while Eight dodge rolled around the back of another. Rider took the last one on with his hero shot.

Just then, Jane’s voice spoke. 

“Wha- hey! You guys aren’t supposed to be in here!”

“Where’s our brother, huh?!”

Rider’s demeanor completely changed. 

“Eva? What are you doing in Cuttlefish Cabin?!” 

“We saw the weird looking inkling go down the manhole with the rest of you! You were all in weird looking clothes, so we followed you!”

“Eva, you’re not supposed to be here.”

“Three, It’s fine. There’s not much we can do now but explain it to them! I can do it, as Agent One of The New Squidbeak Splatoon!” Callie offered, before going off to explain what the Splatoon was and what it did.

They continued the maze and made it to the final platform, where then the gravity spun back around.

All three agents inked up the walls, and swam up them, ready to save the zapfish. But when they reached the top, something else was waiting for them. An inkling, with tentacles tied up into pigtails. It almost looked like she was wearing Hyposhades, similar to the ones Callie was wearing when she had been brainwashed. The difference between her and Callie, though, was that THIS inkling was wearing the regular octarian military suit. She was holding the zapfish in her arms and smiling. 

“Sorry, agents. But you’re gonna need to work a little harder to get this little cutie here! See y’ later!!” And that was it before she super jumped away.

“I think...I think that’s Venere.” Eight says, remembering the pink to purple ombré of the inkling’s tentacles.

“Who?” Abbi sounds totally confused. 

“Venere, a S rank player. I’ve seen some of her matches. She’s strong. Uses dark tetra Dualies. She went missing a few weeks ago.”

“You’re right. She’s not very distinct, but that voice gave it away..” Rider noted.

“We have to get those shades off of her.”

And with that, the agents prepared to super jump.

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At first, it was just Eight who was not vibing. Now, it is everyone who is not vibing.


	11. The Chase Begins ~Get that Zapfish!~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The wild goose chase continues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhuhuhu I’m really proud of this chapter! It might be the best one yet!

When they landed, Venere was standing there, smiling and holding the zapfish. She almost looked like she had rescued it, minus the hypnoshades and octarian military uniform. 

  
  


At first, Eight tried to negotiate, saying, “what do you need the Zapfish for? You’re clearly not powering anything with it, so what do you need it for?”

Venere wasn’t having any of it, though. She simply shrugged and said, “cause I want it. And a friend of mine needs one. So I apologize, but I’ll be going now, bye bye!” She began to run off.

“Hey! Come back here!” Abbi yelled, jumping down from the elevated platform to chase after her, and after sharing a look, Rider and Eight followed as well. 

While Abbi ran along ahead, Eight and Rider were stuck fighting any octotroopers or octosnipers that Abbi had ignored in favor of chasing the presumably brainwashed inkling. 

Eventually, the realm of easily reachable platforms ended.

“Grapplinks? Are you kidding me?” Abbi was heard yelling up ahead, then laughing and the sound of grapplinks being activated. 

Of course. They were pretty high up, after all. 

Abbi was already way ahead by the time the two boys reached the grapplinks downwards, but of course, this wasn’t new to eight. He shot his dualies at the row of grapplinks, one after another. 

Rider, on the other hand, stood back on the other platform, looking nervous. He was never a fan of things like this. 

Eight looked back, trying to think of a way to convince Rider he was going to be fine. While thinking, Eight’s eyes always tended to wander. Eventually, they wandered downwards, where he spotted a platform lower down below the grapplinks. Eight smiled and looked back up at Rider.

“Rider! There’s a platform below the grapplinks. If you fall, you’ll just fall onto the platform. C’mon, we’re burning daylight and I doubt Abbi has much impulse control left.”

That seemed to convince the inkling boy, who aimed his old hero shot and shot, one after another. He almost slipped on one, but threw a splat bomb just in time. When he reached solid ground once again, Rider let out a relieved sigh. 

“Those things might scare me more than DJ Octavio himself.” Rider said, looking back at the line of grapplinks. 

Eight chuckled a bit, grinning while Jane’s voice reprimanded Abbi, telling her to slow down and not be so reckless. The only reason Jane had been allowed to know is because she was a biologist, and in case the Octarians had any new tricks up their sleeve, they’d brought her along. 

Although, Eight was pretty sure Abbi suggested her because they were girlfriends. Whichever reasoning it was, it didn’t stop Jane from yelling at her. 

He also swears he heard Eva laughing at Rider’s anxiety about the grapplinks. 

“Okay, come on. The whole grapplink situation has allowed Abbi to get way too far ahead. This has almost turned into chasing her instead of Venere, I swear.” Eight said, returning his focus to the current objective: catch Venere and take the zapfish back. Also, destroy those hypnoshades, if they could. 

“Right, yeah. Lets go.” Rider nodded, putting his poker face back on. 

After a few more minutes of octotrooper clean-up, Eight and Rider we’re getting close to Abbi, to the point an inkable wall was the only thing separating them. 

Rider turned into his squid form and was almost up the wall before Eight pressed his ear close to the wall. “Wait.”

Rider did as told and waited, turning back into inkling form. 

“There’s octolings behind this wall. Abbi must be in pretty deep, it sounds like there’s a lot. C’mon, we better go help her before she gets splatted and Jane gets traumatized too.” With that statement, Eight switched to octopus form and swam up and over the wall. 

Rider followed suit, and though hesitant, Eight took out just as many octolings as Rider did. They worked as a team right up until they reached Abbi. She was standing, poised ready to pull a vertical swing with her roller. In front of her stood a male octoling, his eyes covered by his tentacles. What was with the Octarian Military and obstructing vision? Whatever it was, he stood with an octoshot aimed right at Abbi, poised to shoot Abbi and splat her for good. His stance, though, was ever so slightly hesitant.

Venere stood behind the Octoling, holding the zapfish. Without even consulting the other, both Eight and Rider ran to Abbi’s side, ready to shoot the octoling. They stood there like that for an agonizing amount of time, all ready to shoot, but refraining in fear of what would happen. 

Venere yawned, stretching. “You done yet, 761976? I got the Zapfish and kept the agents from getting it, like you asked!”

In a quiet voice, softer than any other Eight has ever heard, the octoling muttered, “I never asked.” He sounded almost...mad, somehow? Eight leaned over to whisper to Abbi and, by extension, Rider. 

“Back up. Something is about to happen between these two.” They both backed up without question. 

761976 dropped his stance and walked back over to Venere. “Yes, I apologize for keeping you waiting.”

“Oh, it’s no problem! Anything for my good friend! Now take the zapfish so we can both leave.” Venere held the zapfish out to the octoling boy, who took it hesitantly and carefully.

_ Can he even see with that hair? _

“Thanks.” And with that, he super jumped away. But not before a final look at Eight. For some reason, it seemed like he was silently pleading for something.

Regardless, Venere continued.

“O-Kay! See you all later! I gotta get ready, since you’re all advancing so quickly.” She waved, grinning from ear to ear, before super jumping away as well. 

“Hey-!” Abbi started to prepare to super jump, but Rider stopped her.

“That octoling has the zapfish, and that’s top priority right now. If we need to, we can go on another mission to save her. But for now, we should follow the octoling.”

Abbi huffed. “Fine. Lets go, then. I’m hungry and I wanna get that zapfish before I turn 85.”

Both agents 3 and 4 super jumped after that. But Eight hesitated.

He knew what was next. There’s only one thing that could still need a zapfish for, and in all honesty, Eight dreaded it.

Well, guess he couldn’t turn back now. No matter how bad of a fate was waiting for him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grapplinks are horrifying and I hate them. Remember to check out the tumblr (green-town-ghost) because i kind of draw a lot of art of the characters in this fic and plan on posting some soon! And also because I’m shamelessly plugging my tumblr. But there’s extra content on it so I suggest you check it out!


	12. The Octostomp Three ~Museum of the Future~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the dreaded Octostomp returns with a new set of rules.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! sorry if these notes are short, I don't wanna spoil the chapter too much. so I'll simply say: enjoy!

Eight knew what was waiting for them, yet was still a little surprised when what waited for them turned out to be a block. Hadn’t both Rider, Abbi, and Eight himself all defeated the Octostomp? And how was it here, without a tentacle from Octavio? And what was-- what was 761976 doing? 

The octoling was inking up the wall, trying to hold onto the zapfish as he swam up the wall of the block that was obviously an Octostomp. 

Before hopping directly into the hole there was once a tentacle in, 761976 turned to look at the three agents behind him. 

“Sorry,” his expression read. 

“I’m going to destroy you,” his body said.

He opened his mouth to say something, shut it, then opened it again. 

“My name is Rowan.” before hopping into the block.

Eight got ready to dodge roll around the octoweapon as it got itself ready. But this time, it wouldn't be as easy as it seemed to all three agents the first time.

On the first phase, the Octostomp put on its “coat”. Momentarily, all that could be seen was the splatling firing, and the agents running in all different directions to avoid it.

Eventually, all agents were on the lower platform that the octostomp couldn't reach.

Abbi ran over to Rider, clearly wanting to get something off her chest.    
  
“Rider, run and tell Eight to keep dodging. I’ll use my roller and get rid of the coat, and then when it tries to stomp me, one of you two go up the sides,”

Rider pondered the plan for a moment. 

  
“Are you sure? Rollers aren't known for their dodging ability.”   
  
“Yeah, but they are known for power. Let me do this, alright?”

“Fine.”

  
  


Abbi ran up straight to the face of the Octostomp, showing relative strength by bringing down her roller twice on the button on the Octostomp’s “coat”, and it popped off. The octostomp stood shocked, but quickly regained its focus and took a stab at stomping Abbi, who slammed her roller down and ran in order to gain speed. 

  
Rider ran over and inked the side of the wall as soon as the Octostomp stomped the ground, swimming up the wall and then standing there, looking for the tentacle stand in. Out of the corner of his eye, Rider saw a panel. Quickly, he shot at it with ink till it popped off and clattered to the ground. He shot the complicated tangle of wires, hoping one was going to shut the whole thing down and this could be over before it even really began. 

Once the Octostomp began to shake, he super-jumped away.

At this point, all agents stood and watched as the Octostomp heated up more and more, bugging out, till it just shut down. 

In a blast of slightly lighter pink ink, the whole octoweapon exploded, revealing Rowan, standing as if he had used a baller and immediately exploded it. Giving the agents absolutely zero time to think, he tossed the zapfish onto a rising UFO-like platform. 

“Aw, c'mon! We had it in the bag!” Abbi sighed, swinging her roller down from her shoulder where she had rested it. 

As she spoke, a whole stage built itself around them. It looked scarily like Shellendorf Institute, even though Eight knew it couldn’t be. Too many modifications. Moving platforms leading up to the skeleton of an ancient sea creature, which in itself had a mold surrounding it. Octolings littering the edges, waiting for one of them to step in range. At the very end, where the enemy spawn should be, stood Rowan and the Zapfish. 

“Woah, what is this?” Jane spoke through their hero headsets.

“Well, for starters, this looks like a modified version of Shellendorf Institute, but why would they know what it looks like?” Rider pondered, tapping his chin thoughtfully.   
  
“Blah blah blah modified version blah blah blah. Questions LATER, zapfish and finding out why this Rowan kid is so weird NOW!” Abbi said, rushing off to one of the side paths.

Eight sighed. “She really shouldn’t run off like that. It leaves us to come up with strategy.”   
  
“Agreed. You're good at strategy. Go after her, I’ll take the path to the right.” Rider said, before running off. Does no one in this Splatoon wait for a response?

Eight ran off after Abbi, taking out any leftover octolings she’d outright dodged. As per usual with these situations, she wasn’t that far up ahead, trapped in a standstill with a kelp octoling. Using his dodge rolls to his advantage, he rolled behind the octoling and splatted her before she could fire her octoshot.

“Thanks Eight! Big help. I don’t know how I keep ending up in these situations.”   
  
“Maybe, just maybe, it's because you keep running off, Abbi. doesn’t Marie at least try to stop you?”   
  
“Yeah, but usually it doesn’t work. C’mon! We’re close.” with that, the impulsive inkling ran off again.

“Wait up-!”

\----------

In all honesty, going up the circle spiral of bone-looking material to the skeleton was sort of fun, in a way. Way more fun than grapplinks, at least to Rider. The fact the inside of the ancient sea creature’s skeleton was slippery if you inked it was sort of fun, too, if you ignore the amount of times Rider had to try to write off himself slipping as sliding in order to dodge the octolings shooting at him. Keeping a poker face while basically on a slip-n-slide was not Rider’s specialty, for sure. Finally, he emerged from the huge slip-n-slide and joined up with Abbi and Eight in the exact center of the stage, after which there were no octolings. All of it was Rowan, and the fact he was given that wide of a space to fight with concerned them.

Eight had a firm grasp on Abbi’s collar. “We need to plan, or we could end up seriously hurt.”

Abbi huffed, but stopped trying to get away in order to attack.

“How about we do the same thing we did with the Octostomp?” Rider suggested.

“That’d probably be dangerous, though.” Eight countered. “Abbi is in actual danger, since we don’t know the capabilities of this guy. We’ve never fought him hand to hand. Or would it be weapon to weapon? Either way, we don’t know what we’re dealing with. We should try to be sneaky.”

“I see your point, but let's try this: we carefully attack him, and once we know his capabilities, retreat and plan.”

“Sounds good, Abbi, wha--- Abbi?” Abbi wasn’t there.

“Oh, carp. Well, there goes being careful.” Eight sighed and ran in, and shortly after Rider joined them after making sure he had enough ink. 

Every time one of them would try to hit him, he’d simply dodge. They needed to be fast, Eight noted. At one point, Rowan’s technique switched to pure offense. All the agents dodged every which way, until all three were in the same area. They looked at eachother, as it had gone suspiciously quiet. Then, a dreaded noise. One of a splashdown being activated. 

Abbi looked up in order to gauge how much time she had to move before she was inevitably hit, and saw Rowan’s eyes. Or well, not eyes, but a pair of shades that looked like the standard military version and the hypnoshades had an ugly baby. Deciding she had barely seconds, she slammed her roller down and RAN. 

Abbi, despite her best efforts, was hit. Not lethally, but enough she told Rider and Eight to retreat. They’d all been hit, so they moved the best they could.

“Did any of you spot weak points?” Rider asked.

“I couldn’t find any at all, and I tried basically everything.” Eight spoke with a defeated tone.

“Well, sucks to be you guys, cause I found one.” Abbi stated proudly.

“Seriously? Where?” Eight perked up immediately.

“He’s wearing Hypnoshades. For whatever reason, he’s not working cooperatively. I bet if we can hit the shades, he’ll be dropped out of commission, and we can take the zapfish then.” Abbi said.

“But how would we do that, o’ wise abbi?” Rider spoke sarcastically.

“Get Eight or you all up in his face, duh.”

“Easier said than done.”

“Let’s just try, ok?! I'll create a distraction. Lets gO!” Abbi said the last bit right as she ran up to the octoling and started flinging ink like crazy.

Rider and Eight gave each other a look before running to either side, waiting for an opportunity to strike his face. 

As Abbi flung another flick of ink and Rowan took yet another step back to dodge it, Rider saw his chance right as the octoling was trying to quickly survey his surroundings. At that moment, the inkling rushed up, and as soon as Rowan’s head turned to look to his left, he got a facefull of teal ink, breaking the shades in half.

As predicted, this put the octoling out of commission, and Eight ran up to break the barrier and take the zapfish back.

At long last, the zapfish was finally rescued. Eight got to carry the zapfish, and Abbi slung the unconscious octoling over her shoulder in a fashion akin to how one would throw a wet sack of potatoes to the same spot.

Rider stared at her as she did this.

“What? He could have useful information.”   
  
Eight sighed. What was wrong with his friends?

\------------

“TEMPEST, they got the first Zapfish.” an octoling spoke quietly, under the cover of night.

“It’ll be fine, PHOBIA. Plus, I got TONS of info. I have so many ideas for improving the Octarian bases now!”

“If you say so. I’ll talk to you soon.”   
  
“Wait, wait! I know this is supposed to be business, but please remember my offer from last time. After all, we should be friends if we’re working together, right?”

“....I’ll think about it.”   
  


“Thanks so much! Tell me when you’ve made up your mind.” after that, TEMPEST hung up.

Inklings are so annoying. But then again, PHOBIA’s own people weren’t shining beacons of righteousness, either. 

  
  


In under a minute after the hacker hung up, PHOBIA called him again.

“Hey, I’ve made up my mind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> after more than 2 chapters with zero updates on their conduct, TEMPEST and PHOBIA finally make a small appearance! the Shellendorf Institute modifications are based on its scrapped ideas found in the Splatoon 2 Artbook.


	13. Short Written Answer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The New Squidbeak Splatoon asks their new octo friend a few questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to put the plot important chapters in increments leading up to the boss, then two non-plot or just chapters that are not missions in between. I hope you all enjoy it!

Eight would not want to be Rowan. Ever. Under any conditions. The poor kid had just woken up from his disco nap of being beaned in the head with enemy ink and was being asked very complicated questions right off the bat. And was also surrounded by inklings, mostly.

More than that, the younger inklings were shooting question after question at him, and to someone who looked like he’d barely gained consciousness a minute ago, that was probably disorienting. It was also being said in  _ inkling _ . Learning inkling wasn't a custom of octarian school systems nor was it the custom of military training.

Rider eventually dragged his siblings away after Eight informed him of this. 

“How’d you learn Octarian, anyway?” Eight asked Rider while Cap’n Cuttlefish and the Squid Sisters asked Rowan some questions of their own.

“Well, my parents always told me I was good with languages. On top of that, they teach a very basic, primitive form of it in school. The kind Octarians used when we fought them in the great turf war. It's closer to inkling than to modern octarian, but I learned a bit from Cap’n Cuttlefish. Most of it. And exposure to their culture and language. I always snatched a few octarian papers if they were left lying around so I could read something in my pastime.” 

“That’s called theft.”

“Hey man, finders keepers.”

At that moment, Cap’n Cuttlefish, followed by Callie and Marie, came out of the Cuttlefish Cabin.

“Oh! Cap’n! How’d it go? Did we get any information?” Eight asked.

“No, unfortunately not. That's why we came to get you! I was hopin’ you’d go talk to the kid. octarian to octarian, right?” Cap’n Cuttlefish said, shaking as he always did when he stood. 

“Al..alright, I guess. Rider knows octarian too and I don’t wanna have to ask all the questions myself, though, so I'm bringing him with me.” In truth, Eight wasn’t all that good at keeping conversations and felt awkward around people he didn’t know, octarian and inklings alike. 

“Fine by me! I gotta apologize for headshotting him earlier, anyways.” Rider stood up and stretched before heading inside, followed by Eight after telling Jane she could come in a different day when the octoling wasn’t so disoriented. She huffed in disappointment but complied.

Rowan visibly relaxed when he entered the room.

“Hello!” the octoling said, waving. 

“Hi. I’m sorry for bringing an inkling, but I promise he won’t hurt you unless you try to attack him. I doubt you will because as far as I remember, octoling military training relies more on its weapons and tech than on brute strength. Unless it's changed in the years I’ve been gone.” It felt nice to speak in octarian again after speaking in inkling for almost two straight years.

“Well, it's changed in a lot of ways, but that has stayed the same,” Rowan replied, still avoiding looking at the inkling.

“In what ways has it changed exactly?”

“Well for starters, the security around bases has been upped tenfold. I wanted to leave 2 years ago, but I couldn’t find the opportunity. So last month, I and two other octolings tried to escape together. But...we got caught. I don’t know what happened to the others, or if they’re still alive, but that's why I had hypnoshades on.” Rowan paused. “The octarians also recruited the help of an inkling. None of us know who they are or where they live, but most of us know them as TEMPEST.”

Without waiting for another question, Rowan continued, “they’re using some alternative power source and fixed most of the octoweapons we thought had been defeated. They have some grunt or something that does their dirty work. That's how they got us Venere. They’re also the ones who found a better design for the hypnoshades. They also designed all of the new bases. It might be helpful to the army, but most of the concepts are completely new!”

“Oh. Alright. Thank you. One more question, though.”   
  
“Yes?”

  
“Can you see with that hairstyle?”

  
  
  


The answer was no.

  
  
  


\-----------

A few days later, Jane and Eight went in so Jane could take notes on octarian and inkling differences, anatomical, cultural, and societal. The prior few days were spent just planning instead of taking action. Now that they knew what they were dealing with, they really couldn’t take any chances.

“Why couldn’t you just ask me?” Eight asked.

“Because you’ve been away for 2 years,” Jane replied, smoothing out one of the wrinkles in her sweater.

“Fair point.”

So Jane sat down at one of the tables, notepad in hand to take notes. The school year had started yesterday and the way most teachers taught in inkling society was to immerse the students in their subject or find ways to make the subject fun and interactive. For the first week of biology, Jane’s teacher had given them the assignment to learn all they could about the anatomy and culture of a non-inkling. Jane had already wanted to learn more about octarians, so this was the perfect opportunity.

Once Eight coerced Rowan out of the room they’d been letting him rest in while they figured out what to do with him, Eight began his job as the interpreter and translator. 

Jane leaned over to Eight. “Can you ask him if I can look at his hands?”

“Uhhh sure…” Eight turned to Rowan and spoke. “She would like to look at your hands. She wants to compare them to an inkling.”

Rowan stuck his hands out, and Jane could be seen making a messy biological sketch. “Longer, pointer hands...ink accent at the end..” 

  
  


Jane looked up. “What about the eyes? That’d be a little hard with your hairstyle, but can you show me your eyes?” 

Eight translated it, and Rowan used his hands to lift his one, long straight cut tentacle piece in the front above his forehead.

“Huh….why don’t they have the little mark at the end? The one Azalea has.” 

  
  


“Male and female octolings have different eye markings.” Eight replied. Jane narrowed her eyes for not letting Rowan answer.

  
  


“We never see male octolings on the battlefield much. What is their role in your society commonly?”

  
  


“Well, mostly, male octolings do deliveries of supplies and stay out of danger. That or they stay behind the scenes and build the tech. Where most 14-year-old female octolings go into military duty, most 14-year-old male octolings stay in school. Of course, it's not against the rules to be male in the military, it's just less common or expected.” Eight gave Rowan the turn to reply and simply translated it.

“Ah, I see. Do the males fill the roles of what is expected of inkling mothers? I.E. caring for the children and such?”

“Sort of? By the time most females want to have children they've already retired from the military or never were in it.”

“What do the cities look like?”

“Often the buildings are made out of pottery the humans left behind when they died out. Sometimes, in the highest class buildings, often that have families of a soldier or other important figure, there's a plant on the top.”

  
  


“What about octotroopers? How are they made? They’re different from normal octolings.”

Does Jane ever run out of questions? 

  
  


Eight sighed, knowing he had several hours of translating ahead of him.

  
  


Maybe he should just teach Rowan inkling, now that he thinks about it.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love writing the humor of this fic. also, abbi is not in the building only because she doesn't know octarian and is therefore not needed. but she will be in the next chapter I guarantee, there will be no shortage of a chaotic roller main


	14. Bonus Track 2.0

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story of the day before the Splatoon goes back, in mostly group chat form.

The day before The New Squidbeak Splatoon was planning to head out to save the next zapfish, all of them were on edge. 

**ScientistButGay: y’all I am so nervous for tmrw I stg Abbi if u run off like you did last time I will personally go down there and splat you myself**

**RollerGirl: AHAH I won’t, I pwomise...**

**CleancoreSurvivor: somehow, I doubt she’s telling the truth.**

**ScientistButGay: oh, Eight, hows Rider, Anyway? He is being suspiciously silent. It’s intimidating.**

**CleancoreSurvivor: idk man I haven’t texted him either. He hasn’t come out of his room all morning, too**

**RollerGirl: @GayPrider u living**

**RollerGirl: WAIT- HAHAHAHAHA**

**ScientistButGay: im dying is this his way of saying happy pride**

**GayPrider: yes. Also would y’all shut up it is so hard to make a rainbow, who made that the gay flag I’d like to have a talk with them**

**RollerGirl: is there even a single straight person in this chat I-**

**GayPrider: there’s Eight**

**CleancoreSurvivor: Sorry sir i only like boys**

Well, it wasn’t entirely a  _ lie _ . He’d just only ever liked one boy, fairly recently. And it was becoming increasingly hard not to turn into a puddle of pink ink whenever the boy smiled or laughed. 

**GayPrider: Dang guess nobody is straight then**

**RollerGirl: in this group chat ? Nah. But in our whole friend group I’m pretty sure Azalea likes guys, right?**

**CleancoreSurvivor: Azalea is bi**

**ScientistButGay: news to me. How come we never knew?**

**CleancoreSurvivor: she doesn’t consider it important. Speaking of, Don't we all have brunch with her?**

**RollerGirl: shoot you’re right everybody we got 15 minutes to meet at Starfish Cafe let’s move**

**ScientistButGay: Abbi ur wearing pajama pants.**

**RollerGirl: SHOOT**

**GayPrider: well. Guess I will just walk around with these rainbow flags on my face until Pride. I am an embarrassment to society**

**CleancoreSurvivor: nah bro I walked around kettles in goggles. I am the embarrassment**

**ScientistButGay: that’s nice that you two are bro’s, but we have 15 minutes. Move**

**GayPrider: fine,** **_mom_ ** **.**

————-

**RollerGirl: straight up cannot believe you for not telling us you were a model, Azalea**

**Azalea: I honestly didn’t think it was that important.**

**GayPrider: that’s really important, dude...my guy, what**

**CleancoreSurvivor: yeah profession is kind of important, you know.**

**Azalea: well I am sorry. Why don’t you all share what you do to make money outside of Grizzco, then?**

**GayPrider: Yo, that’s actually a good idea. I don’t usually work outside of Grizzco but every now and then I screw around with my DJ equipment. Sometimes I do Coding too.**

**RollerGirl: that’s fun, at least. I just do assistant work for Sheldon sometimes. It’s not much fun.**

**CleancoreSurvivor: that sounds like fun, actually. Personally I do assistant work for Flow. She’s really nice and makes me tea sometimes.**

**ScientistButGay: that’s so sweet (´；ω；`) i just have such scattered studies that I do engineering. It’s fun, I get to make autobombs fly. For money. I get paid to make quite possibly the most threatening thing in the universe.**

**CleancoreSurvivor: remind me to protest any concept of allowing custom bombs in turf war.**

**RollerGirl: noted.**

**GayPrider: in any case, did I look ridiculous at brunch or was I good.**

**Azalea: you looked ridiculous.**

**GayPrider: dangit**

**CleancoreSurvivor: doesn’t really matter though, since we’re on the way to pride right now. You won’t look ridiculous soon enough.**

**ScientistButGay: then why are you texting???**

**CleancoreSurvivor: because we gotta talk to y’all somehow**

**GayPrider: yeah duh**

**Azalea: Abbi and Jane are doing something too, right?**

**RollerGirl: yes! We are celebrating our anniversary. 2 years now, I think.**

**ScientistButGay: yes, 2 years.**

**Azalea: well, you guys have fun.**

——

**CleancoreSurvivor: Azalea don't joke, I literally saw you at pride**

**Azalea: dang I’ve been caught. Yeah I went to pride.**

**GayPrider: Wait what???? I didn’t see her**

**CleancoreSurvivor: I’m like. 90% sure you’re half blind with that scar on your eye**

**GayPrider: bruh i'm not**

**CleancoreSurvivor: HA sure**

———

**GayPrider: yo we are having a movie night right before we go back into a very dangerous situation, you guys wanna come over and do the same thing??**

**RollerGirl: only if we get to sleep over**

**CleancoreSurvivor: Abbi why**

**RollerGirl: because it’s fun!**

**GayPrider: fair point. bring your outfit over, yeah? then there won’t be an issue in the morning**

**ScientistButGay: alright. We’ll be over soon. What movies you want us to bring?**

**CleancoreSurvivor: My Neighbor Totoro**

**GayPrider: what?**

**CleancoreSurvivor: My Neighbor Totoro**

**it's a movie from a human studio. You guys dont have old discs of those?** **  
** **  
** **GayPrider: no….?**

**CleancoreSurvivor: one minute. Get some popcorn for me, yeah?**

“I'm going to get Azalea’s disc of My Neighbor Totoro! Give me 15 minutes!” Eight yelled, adjusting his goggles on his head. 

“Alright, I guess.. I was just gonna suggest we watch the show Callie was in but I guess not..” Rider spoke, far away as if he was in the kitchen. 

**GayPrider: guys Eight literally left to go get Azalea and her disc of My Neighbor Totoro**

**RollerGirl: what a clown. Dw im totally bringing over Callie’s TV drama**

**GayPrider: you have that??**

**RollerGirl: yeah Marie made me watch videos of all their concerts and made me buy discs of all the shows they’ve been in.**

**ScientistButGay: I would think that the discs would be waterlogged, though...maybe they found a way to repair them? I’ll have to ask Eight how.**

**GayPrider: well if you figure out how I have plenty of discs and old tech you can re-engineer to work from the octarians.**

**ScientistButGay: Really?! ( ´ ▽ ` ) you’re a saint, Rider.**

**GayPrider: no problem, dude**

15 minutes later, Eight slammed open the door to their apartment, Azalea and her bag of old human discs.

“They’re hard to understand, but Jane, you learned a bit of human in your studies, right?” Eight said, sliding the disc in to Azalea’s contraption, which she insisted was the only one that would work for these ones.

“Yeah, I did. Pretty fluent, actually.” Jane responded, tugging the popcorn bowl away from Abbi’s gaping maw.

“Great! We don’t really need it though, most of these films are animated and really beautiful.” 

“Here we go, then, I guess.” Rider said, handing Eight his own bowl of popcorn that they and Azalea could share, because Abbi didn’t seem too keen on sharing with anyone but Jane. 

An hour in, Jane was squished to the opposite end of the couch to Eight, who was Squished up against Rider. Abbi, the catalyst of this awkward arrangement, was laying sideways as she shoved popcorn into her mouth. Azalea left the realm of the couch early, probably because she saw this coming.

Eight, unfortunately did not, and now was desperately trying not to overheat and die, because he’s squished up against Rider’s side, and Rider is a very pretty inkling boy. So, in an attempt to hide his quickly pinking face, he shoved popcorn into his mouth. This was probably poor foresight on his part, very poor in all honesty, but it was his only solution.

Jane, on the other hand, was having the opposite problem. Despite bringing a blanket so her and Abbi could cuddle under it while they watched Callie’s TV drama, she didn’t seem interested as long as a single kernel of popcorn still existed in that bowl.

Somehow, in the beginning of their marathon of Callie’s TV Drama, there was still popcorn in both bowls. And this is when Rider took the opportunity to direct his gaze at Eight.

“You sure like popcorn, huh?” Rider grinned.

Eight coughed, swallowing the kernel a little too quickly. “Yeah I guess,”

“It’s funny, I don’t know a lot about what foods you like, despite living with you for two years.”

“Well, I usually just eat whatever I make for dinner. That might explain it.”

“Yeah...I don’t get to make food all that often, huh.”

“No. The one time I let you help me, you basically burned the water.”

“Haha, yeah..sorry about that.” God, why are yellow eyes so pretty? Maybe it was just Rider’s. Maybe Eight was just seeing things.

“SHHH, you guys are making it hard to hear. If you’re gonna talk just text each other. You have phones..” Abbi sounded mad. She must like this show.

“Fine fine, okay, jeez.” Rider rolled his eyes before focusing back on the TV.

Eight really hoped Abbi ran out of popcorn soon, because at this point he might melt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a different type of chapter...I’m sorry for the sudden raging homosexuality at the end. Also I’m sorry for holding off, I just had the end of the school year and wanted to take a break.


	15. Introducing the Alleyways! ~The Modern Labyrinth Beckons~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Agents install another chapter of hopelessly chasing after another person to retrieve the zapfish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey what’s up! Sorry I haven’t posted anything since June. Life got kinda busy and I got stuck in a creative rut, but I’m good now! Enjoy!

The next morning was a blur of half-truths and trying to not let anything about Squidbeak slip to Azalea, and it’s honestly a surprise she didn’t figure out from context clues. What might be a bigger surprise is that they made it to the manhole before sunrise. 

Abbi yawned and nearly dropped her roller. 

“Remind me why we had to get up so early for this?” She asked, clearly displeased with the decision to get up at the butt crack of dawn.

“In the early stages of the Great Turf War, the octarians had been winning because we as a species couldn’t get up early enough. The early bird gets the worm, as the humans said,” Jane replies, stretching.

Eight was already fully awake, shaking off the last drops of sleep from his psyche. It was common practice in the Octarian military to get up around this time, and he imagined they held that practice true through today.

Rider made sure his ink tank was secure on his back, yawning occasionally. This wasn’t the first time he had woken up this early, but he still wasn’t necessarily used to it. Bracing himself, he jumped down the next manhole. Eight followed suit, and Abbi sleepily after. 

When they took in their surroundings, it looked like a familiar alley in Inkopolis. 

Rider started to note all the streets and buildings around, poised in case there was an ambush.

“Hey, you two, stop taking in the sights and let’s find that Zapfish. And that Venere kid, too, if we have time.” Abbi knocked both of them out of their analysis. 

She wasn’t wrong, though. allegedly, there was a zapfish here. They just had to find it and retrieve it, even at the cost of the area’s power.

“Hey, Wait...isn’t Venere older than you?” Rider said slowly, clearly just having processed what Abbi said.

“Uuuh...no…” Abbi said quickly, running off with her roller.

“Hey, Wait up-!” Eight spoke, running after her. 

———-

Jane was berating Abbi for running off once again. 

“Really, Abbigail? You could’ve really gotten hurt! You ran straight into an octoling ambush!” You could hear the ear pulling kettles apart.

“Whatever, Jane. I Was fine in the end, right? So It shouldn’t matter!” Abbi rebutted, rolling her eyes and splatting an estranged octoling. 

Eight tried not to flinch.

In the octoling’s peripheral vision, an octosniper formed out of hot pink ink.

Eight turned to see that Rider was preoccupied with an octocommander, and Abbi was still arguing her point to Jane.

Unfortunately, the octosniper didn’t know when to take his lunch break. It poised to splat Abbi. Quickly, Eight took into account subtle details.

“Seriously, Jane, I’ll be fine! I’ve done more dangerous stuff!” Abbi insisted. The octosniper poised to fire.

“Yeah, and you got hurt! You were alone then, but you have teammates now, which means you don’t need to take so many risks!” You could hear the worry and neurosis in Jane's voice. The octosniper inhaled.

“Move!” Eight shouted, dodge rolling and pushing Abbi to the side. 

“Both of you, stop arguing. Focus on the task at hand.” Marie chastised them both while Eight ran up to the octotrooper and splatted it.

Both of them shut up for a bit after that.

He didn’t feel as bad, the octotroopers and their variants are barely sentient, created through asexual production. There’s thousands of others. 

But hurting something he would’ve considered one of his own just two years ago still gave him phantom pains. 

Up ahead, they spotted a flash of pink pigtails.

Rider was the first to speak.

“You think that’s her?” He said this as if any of them were unsure. 

Abbi rolled her eyes.

“Well, yeah. Duh. lets go.” And rolled off.

——-

The terrain was winding and seemed to lead in circles, but it would seem that way for anyone following glimpses of a missing brainwashed inkling.

Eventually, they reached a point where it seemed like a parking lot for cars. 

“So, is she not here or am I so sleep deprived I’m not seeing her.” Abbi said, shouldering her roller.

“Well, as far as I know she’s not here.” Eight knew it was a joke, but he still started looking around in case she was, in fact, there. 

“Well, I wasn’t there, yet! But it seems like you’re here! Yay!” The familiar voice was coming from the roof of the building behind them. The three agents turned around to face the S ranking inkling. 

Venere yawned.

“Man, that ink color is boring! You could’ve gone with something other than gray, you know..” 

“I...it’s purple, though..” Abbi said, confused. 

“Whatever!! What matters is you guys are boring.”

“Can you just hand us the zapfish and get it over with?” 

Venere made a face as if she was considering it, then shook her head. “mmmm, no!” 

“Uuggghhhh, I know you’re brainwashed and stuff but why do you need to be so difficult?” 

“Because if you get the zapfish back it’ll ruin our plans. I thought you knew this?” 

All that time Abbi had been talking, Rider had been climbing up the ladder to the roof of the building Venere was standing. 

Her eyes shifted to Rider climbing, and suddenly she switched back to prioritizing leading them on a wild goose chase.

“Ah, no thank you! This zapfish is my little buddy!” Venere shook her head. “You guys can’t have it!” She tossed it high up in the air to a drone. 

“This is getting ridiculous..” Abbi mumbled, throwing a long column of ink up the wall as Rider swam up the last few inches. Eight followed shortly after.

Out of vibrant pink hues formed multiple octosnipers, octocommanders, and both monotacle and twintacle octotroopers surrounded the agents as Venere showed off impressive strength by backflipping to a safe zone.

“So, genius, got a plan for this one?” Abbi turned to Rider, her anxiety peaking through her mischievous expression.

“Yeah. It’s called try not to get splatted—“ Rider said, before switching completely into battle mode. Left and right several Octarian military members went down, and despite the volume of enemies, Rider seemed to be keeping his cool.

The sound of swinging columns of ink sounded multiple times against the rapid fire of octocommanders splatlings behind Eight as he took out two octosnipers. 

Eight heard the sound of a splashdown behind him and grinned. one of his friends must’ve found a tin.

Wait.

Abbi and Rider already used their tins, and Eight hadn’t found any.

If Eight’s recent memories serve him right, dark tetra dualies have a kit of autobombs and…

Splashdown.

Thinking with instincts, Eight rolls backwards.

One, two, pause, one, two, pause. 

After a second or two, Eight hears Venere’s voice.

She makes a disappointed sigh, “man, I was really hoping I’d get at least one of ya.” 

“Well, whatever. I still have the zapfish, so you’re still thwarted.” Venere hops onto the moving, floating platform Eight had originally thought was a drone. 

“Catch me if you can, runts!” She cackles and super jumps away.

“...did she just call us runts..?” Rider questions, taking out a stray octotrooper. 

“Yeah,” Abbi swings her roller down and rests one of her feet on it.

“Isn’t that a little mean?” Eight rolls his shoulders, trying to relax them.

“....she’s brainwashed, Eight.” Rider stares at him.

“CMON SLOWPOKES! We gotta catch up!” Abbi tells before super jumping in the direction Venere went. 

“I..guess we should follow her.” Rider rolled his eyes, but went and super jumped as well.

Eight shook his head violently a couple times back and forth and followed.    
  


Oh boy, here we go again..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been practicing, and although It may take a while, I have the next 5 chapters planned. I hope I didn’t disappoint you all by disappearing for a bit.


	16. Octo Arcade! ~New Highscore~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Gang goes to an arcade! Er....what looks like an arcade, at least!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry for not posting for a while. I just didn’t have a lot of motivation over the summer, but now that the school year has started I tend to end up writing new chapters as a way to help me focus. So enjoy!

Landing hadn’t ever been much of an issue for the agents after super jumping, but Rider may have just as well fallen on his butt, the shocking change of surroundings surprising him. 

Abbi chuckled at his misery, seemingly unphased by the change of scenery. In front of them, instead of something like last time--which was a mess of alleyways and generally just looked akin to a small town on the outskirts of Inkopolis had it not been for the fact the entire place was crawling with Octarians-- stood what looked like an arcade, instead. Er, the closest thing you could get to an arcade with Octarian architecture. 

To be honest, it looked more like a  _ living  _ arcade rather than one people actually went to. Moving platforms, more grapplinks than there were Octarians, inkrails, what looked to be invisible platforms, and balloon fish galore. You name it, it was probably there.

“WOO!! Haha, this looks like a playground for Octos! Let’s go, c’mon!” As per usual, Abbi was excited rather than nervous about the challenges before her. To be fair, it did look pretty fun… at least to Eight. 

Eight, Eight...what a boring name, huh? The world tuned out and his head put him on autopilot as he pondered it.

It’s not that he doesn’t like his old name, it’s just that he doesn’t remember it, which in itself is a unique kind of issue. Over the time he’d spent in Inkopolis, he’d gone by many names, but none of them...ever felt  _ right. _

You know, the name that really speaks to you and when people look at you they can tell, oh that's a ___. But for Eight, he’d never run into a name like that. A name he could relate to.

He should probably talk to his fellow agents about it, huh. He really does want a ‘real’ name. Not just one that was because of that horribly, horribly high number.

  
  


_ 10,007. _

  
  


That snapped Eight back to reality. Er-- either that or the painful splash of pink ink to his face. _Ouch_. That’s right, he was fighting Octarians in an attempt to catch up with a rogue inkling. Quickly, the octoling turned to his left quickly, firing one, two, three, four shots into the twintacle octotrooper, trying to ward off the thought that that’s a sentient being; That’s a living organism. It hurt Eight’s heart ever so slightly.

“Oh, hey, welcome back spacecase!! Nice of you to start being aware of your surroundings!” Abbi shouted, slamming a roller down on top of an elite octoling. Eight winces.

“Sorry! Where’s Rider?” Eight hadn’t seen him since he snapped out of his thoughts. 

  
  


“Oh, he’s just up ahead! Little buggers’ real fast when he’s in his element.”

  
  


“Ah. I guess we should catch up then, huh?”

  
  


“Shell yeah!” Abbi yells, throwing out a long column of ink and swimming up the wall in front of them; Eight follows not long after.

In front of them stands a sight Eight is all too familiar with. 

Rider, taking out every single enemy within that area on his own with relative ease. 

“He really is adept at his Hero Shot, huh? Even though it's an old model, he’s still up and kickin’,” Abbi comments quietly, just watching. Both Agents were both aware they weren’t really needed in this situation since Rider seemed to have it all under control.

  
  


Soon enough, Rider had finished the last Octosniper at the end of the long, rectangular platform.

  
  


“Oh, hey guys! Eight finally come back down to earth?” Rider looked up at the two on the higher platform. 

“Yeah, now move over, i'm coming down!” Abbi shrieked, before taking a running start and jumping down to the lower platform. It almost gave Eight a heart attack; once he calmed down, Eight jumped down himself so the group could continue on and hopefully end this uprising before it really had a chance to begin. 

Once they all reached the end, what stood in front of them was a long and wide gap to the next platform.

“Huh? How in the world do they expect us to--” Abbi started, before Eight ran up and inked in front, left and right, eventually landing on the corner of a moving, invisible platform. “--Oh.” she said simply, as Rider and Eight both hopped on the invisible platform.

“Hey, wait for me!!” she yelled, before jumping on. 

This process was pretty rinse and repeat for a couple minutes, until they reached the other side and a new platform.

  
  


“Shell yeah!! We kick **_BUTT_**!!” Abbi, in all honesty, seemed really excitable right now. Maybe it was the arcade-esque look of the kettle, or the excitable energy those kinds of places seemed to produce.

Whatever it was, Abbi was particularly high energy right now, and it kind of amused the other two agents.

Rider snickered. “We didn't before? That’s a pretty wild accusation to throw at a group of people who have all saved Inkopolis on all separate occasions.”

  
  


Abbi whipped her head around to him and frowned. “You know what I meant, dude!”

Rider was feebly attempting to bite back laughter, “no, I don’t-- could- could you explain it for me?”

“Rider, I can and will crush you.” 

“Okay, okay! I can't help it, you look like a toddler hopped up on too much candy--”

“Both of you focus. We’re burning daylight.” Jane spoke over their headphones.

“Right. C’mon, I don't wanna spend any more time chasing down this zapfish than we already have.” Rider remarked, and then rushed on ahead, followed by the remaining two.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  


The rest of the ‘Arcade’ was a blur, until they finally had reached the highest platform on an almost pyramid seeming stack of platforms, getting smaller and smaller as they went higher.

“Huh, they really did just rip old arcade games out and make a whole kettle with em’...” Abbi muttered to herself, holstering her roller on her shoulder as per usual.

“Yoo-Hoo! Hurry up, you guys!! I'm getting bored waiting for you..” Venere’s voice rang out from the top, er--the smallest platform.

That motivated the group just enough to get them to the top and see Venere, once again, with the zapfish.

“Hey hey! You made it just in time for the main event!” the inkling grins. “I’m really excited to show you all the extent of my abilities, you know?” 

  
  


“Huh..?” Eight lets it slip without thinking.

  
  


“Shame Rowan couldn’t see it, though, they’re kind of soft-hearted anyway… and besides, they’d have to be defeated for our plans to work!” Venere continues, but what seems to be a miniscule detail trips Rider up.

“They?” Rider questions, eyeing the hypnoshades on Venere’s face.

Venere bursts out laughing. “You--you didn't know? PFFAHAHAHA-- wow, and I thought they themselves were pathetic! Though, I gueess i can't blame you. They probably chickened out on telling you.”

“Hey, spacecase!! Can we stop worrying about the pronouns of our friends while there’s a boss battle looming?” Abbi protests before the conversation can go any further. 

“Oh, right.” Rider takes a deep breath and makes sure his ink tank is full.

While everyone was bickering, Eight had taken the time to take in her outfit, which was different than her normal, regular octarian military uniform. While she was still showing her belly, she wore a cropped black turtleneck that had no sleeves and stopped at her belly. On top of that turtleneck sat a zippable loose pink crop top that was off-the-shoulder. The crop top was left un-zipped, and the zipper was huge. She wore black leather pants and the classic octarian military boots, and to complete the look, black fingerless gloves.

  
  


She stood in the absolute center of the platform, where a podium that a zapfish would go in stood.

Just then, Venere threw the zapfish in the air as it squealed. 

  
  


“oopsie!”

It landed on the podium, hooking up as a source of power immediately. The pyramid shaped platforms began to merge.

  
  


uh-oh.

Maybe Eight wouldn’t have to worry about finding a ‘real name’ after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I did that. See ya soon!


End file.
